A Visit from St. Nicholas

 -psst...Hey Brennan, how's this St. Nicholas stuff work, anyway?

-Well, Lucie, St. Nicholas brings candy, but only if you're good.  If you're bad, all you get is a lump of coal.

-what do I do if I want to get candy?

-first, you give lots of hugs:

-you make sure to pick up your mess:

 -and most important, you don't steal my popcorn on movie night:

 Then, on December 5th, you hang up your stocking, and go to bed without fussing or screaming.  St. Nicholas won't come unless you're asleep.  And in the morning, your stocking will be full of cookies and candy!

 I'd nixed a tree this year, thinking it'd be a fire hazard, or at the very least, a needle-y mess, after our 8 days in Mexico.  I let Brennan help me cut out a big paper Christmas tree to tack to our living room door, and we stuck on lightweight ornaments on it, hung lights in the windows, and drank cocoa.  We also went down to Union Square to do a little shopping for Lucie & Daddy, and we stopped by the really big Christmas tree.  I thought this would satisfy any holiday quotas.

I was wrong.

All my substitute-Christmas-tree attempts just fanned the flames.  "I don't want that pretend tree!  I want a real one!" was shouted at me while we waited for the Muni train to take us downtown.  Every tree in every window was an occasion for "When are we going to get a real tree?!"  Thank goodness for the Hanukkah celebration we spotted through the windows of the local Montessori preschool.  The menorah lighting took him off-message for a while, since he wanted to know if it was Hanukkah's birthday.  

So, lesson learned.  I'm sorry I hijacked your holiday, buddy.  I thought you were too young to really notice, and would love a week on the beach instead.  I promise there will be a real tree next year.

Hopefully I'm forgiven.  When he was telling me all about how he was going to try ice-skating next year, he did at least ask if I would go with him and hold his hand.